Riverside Minor Baseball Association supporters burst into wild applause Monday night after council ignored the advice of its staff and resoundingly approved a plan to transform the former Riverside arena site into a “miracle park” for children with disabilities.

“It’s just wonderful,” Bill Kell, the RMBA official who led the years-long effort, said following a 9-1 vote. It went against administration’s recommendation to sell the arena land for condos and commercial uses. An intense lobbying effort in the last week, headed by Kell and Ward 6 Coun. Jo-Anne Gignac, convinced councillors that the selloff was not what the community wants, Kell said.

What sealed the deal, according to Gignac, was Riverside native Rick Farrow’s commitment to donate $500,000 towards the $2.4-million project.

“Rick Farrow stepping up was just the home run, the home run,” Gignac said after the council meeting, where almost all the many speakers scheduled to address council withdrew after learning of a new motion — introduced by Gignac — that embraced the RMBA proposal. The council chambers was filled with people wearing blue T-shirts that read: “Live. Breathe. Riverside.”

Rick Farrow tells city council on June 19, 2017, that he’ll donate $500,000 for a proposed Miracle Field at the former Riverside arena site.Dax Melmer /
Windsor Star

“They’re thrilled, the community is thrilled,” Gignac said.

Kell said construction could start as early as the fall. The original RMBA plan was to take over the arena site as well as the existing St. Rose Park behind it and then add an accessible playground, accessible washrooms and change rooms, a gathering place with stage, a walking path and a Miracle Field Diamond, a rubberized playing field for kids with disabilities to play the game.

The motion approved Monday involves leasing the arena site fronting Wyandotte Street to RMBA for the Miracle Field, parking and a new location for the Riverside cenotaph. But the city would keep the park and form a partnership with RMBA to make future improvements. That new arrangement means the baseball association may not have to raise the entire $2.4 million, Kell said.

City staff were recommending the selloff because of the previous council’s direction to sell the former arena site as part of the financial plan (along with selling the old Adstoll arena site) to build the WFCU Centre. In addition to getting revenue from selling the land for development, the city would also reap development fees as well as annual taxes.

Mayor Drew Dilkens acknowledged Monday’s decision means a lost financial opportunity, but the city is proceeding with a plan to tear down and sell residential lots on the former Concord school site it had acquired from the public school board. The school is located directly south of the park.

Dilkens said when he became mayor, he was dubious when Kell first approached him, assuming wrongly that RMBA wanted to transform the park at the city’s expense. But his mind changed six or eight months ago when he attended an RMBA meeting and witnessed the broad and passionate support and the commitment to raise the required money.

“I knew it wasn’t just one man, I knew it was an entire community coming forward with this project.”

The theme of the project is “Every Child Deserves a Place to Play.”

“This should be council’s legacy to the community,” said Farrow, arguing against turning the arena site into a strip mall.

One Riverside resident who did speak, Jeremy Renaud, said the selloff plan “would end Riverside as we know it.”

“We have to stop tearing down what makes our individual communities great and start investing in our future,” he said.

The one councillor who opposed the plan was Ward 4’s Chris Holt, who said the staff plan for residential/commercial was an example of increasing residential density in urban areas. When that happens, it stems the closure of schools, prevents the hospital from moving to the outskirts, makes public transit better and supports local businesses, he said.

When he told the audience: “I hope you understand where I’m coming from on this,” he received a scattering of boos.

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